Vortex
by LucyRasmussen2
Summary: Mara always bubbles to the surface when no one is looking. Story of her life, really.
1. Vortex

**Title: Vortex**

**Author: LucyRasmussen**

**Disclaimer: not mine**

**Notes: re boot of an earlier story, worked out some kinks I had with it.**

**Vortex**

Mara always bubbles to the surface when no one is looking. Story of her life really.

She peers around at the stumbling injured people who were once her friends.

"Now, who's going to help me get William back?"

The journalists cower in the corner, the smaller of the two clutching his shoulder. He'll do just fine. If she remembers correctly, anyway. She touches his shoulder and feels the pain as it leaves his body.

There's a man who looks like a pirate stumbling around and a brown haired girl laying lifeless on the floor. He has all the The Troubles, billowing and fighting one another. Later when she's finished here she'll take them from him, one at a time.

„_Audrey"_

She turns to the man who was foolish enough to keep her here. Audrey's love. Betrothed, almost.

„_Oh, Audrey's gone away, she sends her love though."_

What she doesn't see is the tall man sneaking up on her with his gun held high. Before she can dole out more sneers she's engulfed in darkness.

When she wakes she finds herself tied up to a post, with the pirate still stumbling about. She marvels at his strength.

"_. Pirate…Colorado. Never tell."_

She ignores the pleading voice as the men circle her carefully.

The Pirate has picked up the brown haired girl and is laying her down at her feet.

"_Fix her."_

She just laughs. The back of his hand hits her jaw before she can even think of another insult to hurl at him.

"_Fix her."_

They're circling her again. Like she's supposed to be afraid. It's happened before, in torch lit rooms with much scarier men. But not this time. Mainly because she knows that they'll never hurt her. Because even though Audrey Parker is nothing more then a still small voice in the back of her head, she's still their savior and their princess and their devotion is infinite.

The Lover is approaching her again.

"_Nathan. Home. Where you are."_

He has pretty blue eyes. Not quite the same blue as Williams were, but they are kind and loving.

Then the wave hits her, a vortex of images and sounds and noises.

„_It's a boy, Sarah, just like you said."_

„_Come on, Luce, it'll be fun. __You know it."_

"_Nice day for a funeral, isn't it, Miss Rasmussen?"_

„_You're not just my partner, either."_

"_You'll be safe here, James, for as long as it takes."_

The next time she wakes, the brown haired girl is hacking and wheezing and slowly coming to. She calls for The Pirate who manages to grab her and they sit huddled together as yellow bilges slowly leave his system.

She looks at it in wonder.

It's so dusty here, and she feels like a blank page.

There's a man asking if she's ok.

She nods because it's the only thing she knows for sure.


	2. Origins

**Origins**

Before she can say a word, men with guns burst into the cave and threaten the already badly injured people.

One of the men approaches her and she feels a sharp pain in her neck.

"_Safer. Do not follow. Warning."_

She dreams of a forest. A dark dense forest with no end.

The trees move, and then she realises it's not a forest at all. It's legs and skirts and faces hidden behind dark bonnets. The faces look down at her disapprovingly.

She peers out and sees a woman standing on a pyre.

There's a man reading the Bible and calling her a sinner and an abomination.

Tears are streaming down her face as she hears the words and they flow even harder when she catches sight of her.

"_No, Mara love, run away."_

Someone appears to be grabbing her by the collar and holding her up high.

"_Look here, hows about we roast us a little piglet as well."_

Just then a man steps forwards and sets the pyre alight.

She watches her mother burn.

When she wakes, the screams refuse to die away for a long time.

Jennifer Mason died for an hour and a half.

It's not what she imagined it would be like. No bright light and no bearded man waiting at the end of the tunnel. All she remembers is the faint smell of fire.

She opens her eyes to find herself in a hospital room. Duke is sleeping in the other bed and there are people arguing just outside the door.

"_Run away"._

It's clear as day and yet she decides to ignore it. She can't do this a second time.

"_Run away while you can."_

She turns on her side and covers her ears.

"_She's not done. Think of your baby. Do it for John."_

No, no, no.

An hour after the last burning scream has faded, the men come.

They sit her down at the table and ask her questions.

What her name is, where she came from, if she remembers a barn and a field and a night long ago when she apparently got punished for something.

They ask her for names of men she loved.

Even though she has no idea nor can she name anything there's a strangle noise in her head.

"_Digby."_

Briefly an image flashes of a red haired man with big green eyes. Sad green eyes.

„_Ross"_

A funeral of a man she didn't like. His smile.

"_Nathan"_

Beautiful blue eyes. Home.

She looks at the men and holds her silence. She can't tell them just yet.

„_William."_

Outside, the thunder clouds gather above Haven.

Twenty miles away, Jennifer wakes with a piercing scream.

„_Told you to run."_


	3. Flight

**Flight**

She stumbles down the hospital hallway, desperately searching for a familiar face.

Nathan is just rounding the corner and she feels relief washing over her. He looks at her strangely and asks if she's feeling ok. It all comes tumbling out, about the voices and the warning. He doesn't say anything and she can tell he's undecided on what to do.

Jennifer hates it when men do that.

She limps further, until she's sure he's following.

* * *

Up on the Peak, two Guard members lay dead on the floor with blood leaking out their noses and she's watching them. How about she bring them back to life? That's always a fun one, for a while.

Too bad death always damages them too badly for the victims to be of practical use.

She wiggles her fingers and watches the yellow smoke dance against her palm.

It's a cold tickling sensation and she's missed this so much.

Outside the sky is turning black and grey and is eagerly waiting to unleash hell on everything underneath it.

"_Did she… tell you anything?"_

She huddles against the passenger seat window and shakes her head.

„_Told you to run."_

That last one was so icy that she's sure to never ever forget the tone of it.

How could he not have seen it. Not have known about her?

* * *

The first thunder explodes above the water, making everything rattle. She sits in one of the rickety chairs on the cabin porch and watches the rain as it comes down violently just outside her reach. Her head starts to hurt, which to Mara is a new sensation. Or an old one that she never took much notice of. It spreads out across her skull and into her eyesockets and she feels like she's about to throw up. She doesn't even make it to the doorway, and then collapses.

* * *

_Sarah Vernon is used to the heat. At least, you'd think she was having survived the blistering temperatures in Korea. But she can not get used to this sticky heat that's in every pore and crevice and never finds its way out._

_Underneath her sundress her son kicks up a storm as he usually does around mid afternoon._

_She dances her fingers around where she thinks his tiny feet should be, and the kicking immediately turns into something else. __She can feel his laughter as she tickles the top of her belly. _

"_Something funny?"_

_Vince Teagues stands in the doorway with a canister with icy water and some cloths._

"_No, just playing a little game."_

_When he sits down next to her, she lays her head on his shoulder._

„_Can you make it rain, Vince? __Please?"_

_He sighs and puts his arm around her._

„_Soon, I promise."_

* * *

They're halfway to town when the storm breaks loose.

A gigantic boom followed by a curtain of water and hail stones pelleting the hood and the roof of the Bronco. Nathan swerves and narrowly avoids crashing into a tree. When the car stops they're both breathing heavily and she feels her side ache.

"Get out."

Nathan is screaming and pulling her along, drowned out by the sound of breaking glass as another piece of hail shatters the front window. They run out into the woods, as far as their feet will carry them.

While he's pulling her along she looks back and she could swear there's someone standing there on the path. Standing very still, not affected by the downpour at all.

„We have…ti…time."

Nathan is still unfazed and tugging on her arm until he looks back and blinks at the figure.

„Help us. Almost…late"

Then she's gone and the rain seems to be slowing down.

* * *

_It's a hot broody day in Haven._

_It's been a hot broody week all week and Audrey Parker has almost had it._

_So when she walks into the Gull after work and finds Duke and Nathan arguing over something trivial she knows she's had it._

_She yells at them and they look at her dumbfounded as she stomps up the stairs._

_When she's confined to her apartment and stripped down to the bare necessities she lays down on the bed and stares at the ceiling. She closes her eyes and tries desperately to calm the storm brewing deep down below._

"_Audreeey."_

_She hasn't noticed them following her, and now they're sidling up to her and whispering their apologies in her ear. She giggles and buries herself inbetween them until that gets too hot and sticky too and she makes them keep their distance._

"_It's too hot."_

_So they lay down beside her and tell her stories about their childhood until she feels her eyelids grow heavy. _

_When she wakes the rain is pouring down on her balcony and she watches from her bed. __One of her boys has opened the French windows to allow the breeze in._

_They are half sleeping next to her, holding her down._

"_We made it rain, Audrey, just for you."_

* * *

When she wakes the dream of two men and rain and warm bodies dissipates, leaving only an angry blighted image of a memory not her own. William would be so mad if he knew.

From the peak , she can see the lighthouse in the distance.

Time to bring him home, again.


	4. Ashes, Ashes

_Once upon a time, there existed a small seaside town in a new country._

_The inhabitants lived a happy new life in their white wooden houses, where they could see the boats and shoals and ships coming and going from their upstairs windows. Watching, waiting, wishing._

_One of those people was Abraham Teagues. He had made a good living for himself by printing a small gazette which was handed out to everyone willing to pay a dime to read it. __He too stood watching in the upstairs window. But the ship he awaited was special. Carrying something extra ordinary._

"_Father."_

_He turned around to find a blond blue eyed boy standing in the doorway._

"_Will she arrive today?"_

_William at four years old is a curious creature, in every sense of the word._

_He takes one last look at the water and shakes his head._

"_Patience, lad. She will arrive soon. But you will not see her until you've learnt all your lessons."_

* * *

They manage to stagger back to the beaten up Bronco, holding on to one another.

He's honestly surprised at how tiny she is.

And there's something else too, something familiar he hasn't noticed before.

Nathan isn't a sentimental guy, so when the feeling washes over him he honestly feels afraid.

_„You'll never find her, Max."_

Jennifer doesn't know this voice.

She looks up at him and tries to ignore the hairs standing up on the back of her neck.

* * *

_One icy day in November, the harbour master notices a ship in the distance._

_He calls out and sounds the horn to let the ship know they're within eye sight._

_When the ship nears the harbour with a mile he notices something strange about it._

_The deck appears to be abandoned and the sails are slightly torn._

_The vessel makes no attempt at stopping and the harbour master shouts for the porters and traders on shore to get out of the way. _

_There's a loud crash as the new jetty is split in half and the ship collides with the harbour wall._

_It's very still. No one dares to breathe a word. _

_From the upstairs window, Abraham Teagues can not help but crack a smile._

* * *

Everything hurts.

She begs Nathan to take her back to the hospital because she might have overestimated this adventure.

"_Think of your baby."_

She bats the voice away because she's not. She can't be.

* * *

Duke and a few uniform cops are waiting for them in the hospital hallway, none of them looking very pleased. Duke and Nathan get into some verbal dispute over how crazy it is considering she died less then twenty four ago. She notices that the argument is tiring him out.

He takes her back to their shared hospital room and glares back at Nathan.

Nathan himself is non surplussed, telling her they'll pick this up again soon.

* * *

_The harbour master hand picks a few strong and able bodied men to do a search of the ship._

_They do not find anyone on the upper deck. Everything is in place, the compass pointing a reliable north and all other instruments intact. The life boat is still hanging on the starboard side._

_When they venture below, the first thing that greets them is the smell. It's horrific enough to make two of the able bodied men cross themselves before fleeing. The rest find a locked door to the hull. When the lock is destroyed they find nothing but death. Bodies are laying on top of one another, some longer gone then others. _

"_Burn em, before we end up like in the same manner."_

_Right when the first torch is aimed, he notices a small movement in the back of the room._

_His heart nearly stops when he finds it's not mice or an abandoned dog, but a little girl._

_She's wearing nothing but rags and her face and hair are positively filthy._

„_Please. It wasn't my fault. But they were so mean and the pox, it just happened."_

* * *

Later, when Duke is sleeping and enjoying the relative comfort of an IV drip she texts Nathan.

"_We need to talk."_

When he answers that no, they shouldn't she knows he's probably wallowing again.

"_No, we do. About…the voices."_

He doesn't respond for a long time.

"_You'll never find her, Max."_

There's a strange giggling, almost maniacal.

Her phone beeps on the nightstand.

* * *

He was busy drowning his sorrows, thinking of how impossible it was to bring her back from another dimension. Or how they will bring her back now that she's here but buried deep in someone's subconscious.

Mara's voice rings in his head. The sneering tone, the complete dark in her eyes.

He thinks of the suburban bliss he promised her a few nights ago.

And how trite that seems now.

* * *

_The little girl is taken from the hull in the strong arms of the bravest man they can find._

_She peers over his shoulder as people crowd around the ship and someone brings in a cart full of odd materials. __There's a lot of scurrying about and then she smells it._

_Strong and pungent, finding its way into her nose and her eyes._

_There's a loud bang, and all she can do is scream._

_She keeps screaming as the man hands her over to the headmistress of the orphanage. She still cries when she's put into a tub full of hot water and soap. The sponge is coarse and her skin is raw and bruised when she comes out. _

_When she's been checked for lice and cleared from having her head shaved she's too exhausted to protest much of anything anymore. She sleeps for three days and dreams of her mother._

_They sit in their tiny living room and she's playing with her toy horses._

"_Mara, love, do you know what alchemy is?"_

"_Al-kem-mee is good magic mama. __Not like witches' magic."_

"_Will you be a good alchemist when you grow up?"_

„_Yes, mama, I'll be a good al-kem-ist, the best there ever will be."_

* * *

On the edge of town, Mara ponders her plan.

Bring William home.

Call for the others.

What she doesn't realise, is how loud the small voices in her head are growing.

Not yet, anyway.

TBC


	5. Revelation

**Revelation**

_It's a white room._

_No door and now windows. __Just a blank space._

_They're all gathered here._

_Some are faint, like Anna and Lydia and Mary. But some are bright like Sarah and Ruth. __There are two Lucys. They call to her, pleading for help._

„_Have you seen him?"_

"_Is he alive?"_

"_His name was Ross, he had red hair and green eyes. Do you know him?"_

_Not Sarah though. Sarah is planning something._

"_Will you be the one that lives long enough?"_

* * *

Three days after Jennifer Mason dies and comes back to life she is released from the hospital.

Duke stops at the drug store for aspirin and Tylenol, and when he's not looking she snatches a pregnancy test of one the shelves. She lags behind on purpose and quickly hands the cashier a five dollar bill.

It burns in her purse for hours until she gathers the courage to use it.

_„Jacob Nathaniel Crocker. But you'll call him John."_

When the second stripe appears she feels the world stopping for a while.

_"Don't worry, you'll get used to that."_

Duke is bustling around on deck and she observes his anxious movements for a while.

She sneaks out and drives herself to Nathan's house.

She shoves the test at him and barges inside without awaiting a reply.

_"Now can we talk about the voices?"_

* * *

_One week after the ghost ship dropped off a little witchy girl, Abraham Teagues picks her up at the orphanage. _

_She hasn't spoken to anyone since the night she arrived, and refuses to play with the other children._

_He leaves her with William in the nursery, who glares at her even though he's anticipated her arrival for a long time. While overseeing dinner, there's a scream coming from upstairs. _

_He finds the children jumping up and down on the bed, much to the dismay of the nursemaid but he orders her to leave them alone._

_Neither of them see the rocking horse moving back and forth even though no one is sitting on it._

_When they're done jumping and said their nighttime prayers, he kisses them goodnight._

_Right before closing the door, he hears her little commanding voice in the darkness._

"_I am no witch, William. I am an al-kee-mist. My mama said so."_

* * *

Nathan sets down the glasses and a bottle of his strongest whiskey on the coffee table. He pours two fingers in each, and she's already had two large gulps before realising.

„_Tell me."_

So it comes spilling out. The many different types of voices. How hard it is to discern Audreys.

She mostly hears Sarah, she thinks.

He listens and doesn't say anything.

„_Can you answer? Communicate?"_

The idea had honestly never crossed her mind.

Then she tells him about the other voice, about Max.

The blood seems to drain from his face for a moment.

„_You take care of her, hear me. __Stay together, always."_

Then she notices a picture on the mantle. A little boy in the arms of his mother. A tiny woman with big brown eyes. They look happy. The kind of happy after a huge weight has been lifted of someones shoulder.

„_Recognise anyone?"_

* * *

_It takes four weeks for William and Mara to like each other._

_On Sunday, when their nanny takes a nap and Abraham has left for the afternoon they sneak out through the servants door._

_They walk along the market. The beg off apples from one of the vendors and look at the many different riches on offer. He shows her the flower stall, with it's bright orchids and white lillies._

_Pointing at a deep red flower, he tells her that one day she'll own thousands of them._

_In the middle of the square a beggar is shouting profanity and people are whispering._

_Mara feels uncomfortable and holds on to his hand tighter._

_There's something being thrown, and landing right at her feet._

_It's a small pebble, coated in a dark red substance._

_After taking a deep breath she starts to walk over and holds it out to him._

_"Here, so they don't burn you"._

_The beggar stops shouting when he looks at the pebble. It's still covered in blood, his blood from driving it deep into his palm. But underneath something is shining._

_„Bless you child, for you have indeed saved me from hellfire. One day, I will repay this favour to you."_

_William is already yanking her arm in the opposite direction, his face filled with fright._

_He doesn't speak to her again for three days. Doesn't even try to steal the food of her plate as he usually does. Later when they're alone up in their bedroom he creeps up to her as she washes her face._

_"Thought you weren't a witch?"_

_"Am not."_

_„But you're an al kee person."_

_„Yes, and al kee mists know special magic. Not witchy magic."_

_"Can you do it again?"_

_For the first time since she arrived, she beams at him._

* * *

_Note: reviews are my crack._


	6. Interference

_It takes five more years for Mara to pull her magic again._

_One morning when she's ten years old she's awoken by a crowd outside._

_She and William watch from the window as a woman is scurried along the street, jeered by a crowd._

_At least she thinks it's a woman. Her body is dressed in a white shift, but her face is covered by a bird mask._

_"Witch approaching!"_

_They're dressed and out the door in under ten minutes._

_When they near the crowd, an uncomfortable feeling creeps up on her._

_"No, Mara love, run away."_

_She watches as the woman is tied to a post. They're leaving the mask on. It's an iron mask._

_There's a man in black shouting something._

_She mouths along as he asks the woman if she is willing to repent._

_There's a faint sound from inside the mask, as if she's laughing._

_It's only when someone steps forward with a torch that Mara feels her entire body go cold._

_They watch as the flames creep upward through the base of the pyre. _

_One minute. Ten minutes. Nothing happens._

_The crowd has stopped jeering and is whispering in hushed fearful tones._

_The fire is burning cold._

_After an hour of nothing happening the onlookers leave._

_The guards untie the woman and drag her away, hissing that her magic won't ever keep her from her rightful fate._

_The woman catches Mara's eye and she faintly smiles in gratitude._

_Takes one to know one._

* * *

Later that night, Jennifer sits up in bed, one hand absently on her lower abdomen.

A baby, a son. Another male Crocker.

She thinks of Duke's trouble. Of grey glowing eyes.

Of not understanding what purpose it serves.

Duke walks in while popping another aspirin, looking at her suspiciously.

"Something different about you."

She blames it on dying but in reality Duke knows her better then that.

"Liar."

His hand reaches for hers. They don't keep secrets, do they?

So she blurts it out in one smooth sentence.

And for the first time in a long time, Duke Crocker is at loss for words.

* * *

_Three days after she saved someone from death, Mara develops a fever._

_She just collapses in the middle of dinner and burns red hot._

_While the doctor is examining her, Abraham interrogates William about what they did at the execution._

_"I didn't do nothing, the fire just wouldn't do what it was supposed to do."_

_From the look in his eyes, he knows that his father is not believing him._

_"Is she going to be ok?"_

_Abraham sighs, and tells him not to mess with the natural order of things._

_Witches should die, and not even divine or alchemist intervention will prevent it._

_The witch who wouldn't burn is drowned in the river the next day. She desperately seeks out the little girl and panics when she can't find her._

_Her last thoughts before the icy water is flooding her lungs is that she hopes this child will not suffer the same fate._

_Across town, Mara slowly wakes and her fever recedes. All she can talk about is birds and high waves trying to drown them._

* * *

Jennifer is up early, mainly because something deep down is desperately trying to get out.

She makes it to the bathroom just in time to spew out everything she's ever eaten.

"Ginger ale. Tastes disgusting, helps keep stuff down."

When her body has recovered enough to help her think clearly, she seeks out Nathan again.

He makes her breakfast while she stares at the picture on the mantle some more.

The woman is slightly taller then her, but has the same fine composure.

She smiles down at her son, with his gap toothed grin and a distraction somewhere off camera.

_"Be good, Jenniebean."_

Nathan is standing behind her and tells her a story of the carnival and how they had live horses and free rides.

_"Be good, Jenniebean."_

The realisation dawns on her so quickly that the frame goes crashing to the floor.

* * *

_When Mara's recovered enough to leave the sick room, she gets called into Abraham's study._

_No one is ever allowed in there without permission so being summoned is a pretty scary thing._

_She's seen grown men leave that room in tears._

_He sits by the fire and makes her stand next to his high backed chair._

_"Your skills are not to be wasted on such matters, understood?"_

_She nods, transfixed by the flames in the hearth._

_"People die when the Lord says so, Mara, and He doesn't like it when someone disobeys him."_

_He admonishes her a little longer, but she doesn't cry._

_When she's sent back to the nursery, he notices that the warmth has left the room._

_He pokes the fire and jumps back when the heat rushes toward him._

_Perhaps he should start her education a little earlier then he bargained for._

* * *

Nathan watches Jennifer drive away, somewhat confused by this turn of events.

He picks up the shards of the picture frame and then notices the inscription on the back.

_"Haven Farmer's Fair, July 1981."_

In his mind's eye he can still imagine her.

The brown in her hair, and the smell of her perfume. Something really light but not overwhelming.

Something sweet, not perfume but something scented and clean.

_"Horses, mom, look!"_

He shakes it off, as he usually does. Sweet memories are always followed by sour ones.

* * *

_Mara watches her steps around William._

_They don't talk, because he's not forgiven her for all the insepid Latin verbs he had to repeat over and over again for three days straight._

_In the dark of their bedroom she prays God and William and Abraham for forgiveness._

_When she's finished, she can hear William on the other side of the room._

_"S' all right Mara, you were worth it. As long as you got better I'd have done them for a century."_

_It somehow doesn't help her sleep that night._

* * *

_Note: Follows and favourites and reviews are my incentive to going. So keep em coming._


	7. Education

**Education**

_On a cold night not long after Mara got scolded for using her skills unwisely, a man comes to visit._

_The doorbell clangs in the dark of night and she and William watch from the landing._

_Abraham and the stranger exchange pleasantries and disappear into the study._

_The next morning they find him at the breakfast table._

_He's a tall gaunt man, with sunken eyes as though he has not slept in a long time._

_"Ah, Fitzwilliam, I see you have met my charges."_

_They glare at him and scarf down their breakfast._

_"Mara, William, meet your new tutor."_

* * *

Mara stands in front of the Good Shepherd Church.

She thinks about the many hours she spent there, sitting next to William in the third pew and later on her own.

About the young gullible preacher who provided her with shelter in her hour of need.

"Audrey?"

She turns around to find a police officer standing there.

"Thought you didn't like this place?"

She looks at him dumbfounded until she realises that he has no idea who she is.

He's a clean one. Not worthy of being Troubled with anything other then good graces and politeness.

"Want a ride to the station?"

Somewhere in the white room of her mind there's a shout.

"Don't you dare."

She beams her best smile at him, the kind that she knows melts them instantly and accepts.

* * *

_Mr. Crocker is a special kind of tutor._

_He's not interested in their language or music skills._

_He does ask a lot of strange questions._

_Where did they come from? Do they remember their parents? Did their parents ever do strange things, or magic?_

_They look at each other confusedly._

_"Mara can do magic."_

_It's out before the question is even asked._

_He places two of his tin soldiers on the desk, one pointing a tiny bayonet at the other._

_In the calm of their bedroom, she sometimes makes the soldiers move or dance cheer him up._

_The dead eyes that scare Mara so much are now staring at her, boring deep into her soul._

_She stares at the tin figures until her head hurts, but ultimately nothing happens._

_"Lying is a sin, William."_

_"But she can. I've seen her do it."_

_While the discussion rages, neither the tutor nor William notice that the soldier with the bayonet has skewered his opponent._

_Mara bolts from the room and hides out in the cupboard under the stairs until the sound of lashes on fingers dies away._

* * *

The policeman, who is named Sam or Stan, she can't remember which drives her to the police station.

She thanks him and takes in her surroundings.

Lots of people milling about, a woman is arguing over something involving her cats.

_"Office. Work. Nathan."_

Audrey Parker keeps a lot of crap on her desk.

Mara turns the snowglobe over and watches as the little green flakes fall down over the little plastic town.

Perhaps that will distract them.

Rain is mediocre. Something a little more exciting will distract them better, she thinks.

_"What are you doing here?"_

A tall blonde man blocks the doorway to the office.

She sees the alarm in his eyes.

The brave able bodied man. The kind that isn't easily tarnished.

He has that mark on his arm, the one that causes her to feel faint and aching.

They stare each other down for a moment until a voice not her own emerges.

"I'm here, Dwight, please don't believe a word she says."

It's over in seconds and Audrey Parker is literally tossed back into the vault where she keeps all the others.

The man has his pulled and aimed at her.

_"You're coming with me."_

She laughs at him. Why do they think that iron bars have any effect on an evil mind.

He leads her out and people stare at her funny. Even the nice untainted cop who brought her here seems confused.

_"Sorry folks, bout of amnesia, get back to your work."_

* * *

_Mara finds him high up in the fields, nursing his battered hand._

_She sits down next to him and rests her head on his shoulder._

_"You shouldn't tell people stuff like that."_

_She takes his hand and concentrates on the skin. The colour and the feel and the hot red stripe running across the palm._

_"If I take it away, promise it'll be our secret? That we'll be normal boring pupils and that there's no magic or special things?"_

_He nods and she runs her finger over the gash._

_When she's done, there's nothing left but a pink fading line._

_"Promise."_

_Meanwhile, at the house, a servant is cleaning the schoolroom and finds the tin soldiers which are now comically melted together._

_Torn by her opinion that toys are made too gruesome these days or that it's strange that someone would even come up with it, she tosses it into her bin._

_She doesn't see the figures coming apart and drops them off with the nursery maid. _

_Fitzwilliam Crocker watches as she places the two figures on the nightstand. _

_So perhaps the boy wasn't lying after all._

* * *

Note: follows and favourites and reviews are my crack.


	8. Trapped

_Audrey Parker goes flying against the white wall._

_She wakes up with her head in Sarah's lap and a soothing voice coming from a distance._

_They stop her from trying to sit up, claiming that she's suffered quite a blow._

_"You shouldn't have done that."_

_The woman, who has her face and her eyes glares at her as if to admonish her._

_"Want to go home, home to Nathan."_

_"Is that his name?"_

_The woman smirks and shakes her head._

_"I hope he's worth the wait, honey. That he'll wait, period."_

* * *

Dwight doesn't take her to the cell block at the police station.

Instead, he drives her to a remote house on the outskirts of town.

He drags her by the arm to a cellar door and tells her to get in.

The cellar itself is dusty and old, and she can see the circular mark embedded in the concrete floor.

She watches as he fills a syringe with an amber fluid.

She focuses and the glass casing explodes in his hand.

While he grasps at the bleeding cuts he swears and curses her.

She doesn't see the man lurking in the shadows as he plunges the needle in her neck.

* * *

_"So, Nathan?"_

_Lucy Ripley sits down beside her and wipes invisible dust of her jeans._

_She's so in awe of seeing a walking talking Lucy that she finds it difficult to find words._

_So she nods. _

_"I used to know a little boy with that name. Skittish little thing. But stubborn as they come."_

_She tries to imagine Nathan at age seven, the little boy that lives in the picture frame on his mantle._

_"Still is, you know."_

_Lucy looks somewhat shocked at this revelation. _

_"Did he grow up a good man?"_

_She nods again, and it's as though Lucy Ripley is a little fainter now. _

_Their silence is interrupted by the sound of what sounds like metal doors opening and closing._

* * *

Mara wakes up in an iron cage.

She hadn't seen it when she came in, hidden behind the creaky stairs.

Dwight and his neck stabbing friend are conferring somewhere out of her sight.

She manages to crawl towards the metal bars and she can feel the hiss before the pain even reaches her brain.

"Told you it was powerful."

Her hand is covered in a big blister, and she can feel it pounding already. It'll infect soon.

Perhaps her captives could come in handy after all.

* * *

"Did you hear that?"

Jennifer and Nathan are driving towards the Halloran House, after receiving a less then ominous message from Dwight.

They hadn't said much during the drive, still struggling with a similar brewing realisation.

Nathan shakes his head and focuses on the road ahead.

"Like, metal, doors maybe?"

Then there's a scream and a woman shouting she doesn't want something.

It's desperate and begging and shivers are running down her spine.

* * *

_"No, no, nooooooo"_

_She watches as the woman with the feathered hat is dragged by an invisible force and vanishes before their eyes._

_The other women look shocked and start mumbling about a cage and that she shouldn't give in._

_Their shock turns into fear as another woman appears._

_"Now who dared defy me, huh?"_

_Audrey, still not recovered from her fall, huddles closer to Lucy Ripley._

_She's hurt and terrified and all she can really do is cower._

* * *

_"Hello?"_

The woman wakes up in a cage.

Her hand is blistered and blackened at the edges.

It's throbbing and she wants to scream in anguish.

There are men outside of the cage, telling her to be quiet.

_"Please help me."_

Somewhere a door opens and there are more voices.

_"She can't get out, Nate. It was built to keep her in."_

A tall lanky man stomps towards the cage and calls her Audrey.

_"I'm not Audrey, I'm Lucy. Lucy Rasmussen."_

She listens for a moment.

_"But I know where she is. And how to get her out."_

Somewhere in the white room, Mara explodes in anger.

This time, the pull is harder and Lucy Rasmussen bangs against the wall so hard her arm breaks.

Nathan watches as her gaze goes from curious and scared to dark and teasing.

_"But I'll be damned if I ever tell you."_

She laughs, even as he reaches for his gun to pull on her.

He's held back by a tiny hand on his shoulder.

The child of ruin.

She'd know those eyes anywhere.

_"She. Can't. Get. Out. Ok?"_

The gun is holstered again, but only with much convincing.

Mara's hand is burning now, and she's careful to not go near the bars.

_"It's a shame I'm in here, you know. Betcha you and I could have lots of fun. Like you and Audrey used to have. You know, that weekend up in Aroostock"_

He comes back and slams his hands against the cage.

Behind him, Jennifer can hear shuffling and voices. A woman is crying in pain.

_"Help us, Jennifer, she's hurt."_

Sure enough, she can tell Mara has trouble lifting her arm.

_"Sedate her."_

Dwight and his Guard friend look at her curiously.

_"Her arm is broken. You can't do anything about it if she's not sedated."_

"Oh, you could do that. But I could do other things, worse things."

Jennifer holds the stun gun behind her back as she approaches.

_"Not a very insightful witch, are you?"_

She aims and watches as Mara falls to the floor.

Under the sleeve of her jacket, her lower arm is indeed purple and blue.

_"Jennifer?"_

She looks down and then she notices the pain shooting up from her own wrist to her elbow.


	9. Bait & Switch

_"Nothing but you and me and the stars."_

It rings in her head, over and over again.

* * *

Just when they finish placing the cast on Jennifers arm, Mara wakes up.

Everyone edges the cage carefully, silently hoping one of her other personas has slipped in.

She moans, and then they notice Mara has been replaced by someone else.

Her red hair is messy and her blue eyes are confused.

She looks around at the people outside and they stand still to fixate on Nathan.

_"Sarah."_

They listen as her breath evens out.

Nathan comes forward and rattles the bars.

_"It's Sarah, she's safe. Let her out."_

Dwight appears to ponder the notion for a few second but ultimately refuses.

_"Might be a trap, Nate."_

_"Hung...so hungry."_

Her voice is weak, and shuddering with cold.

_"Hungry."_

* * *

_In the white room, the atmosphere has shifted._

_It's cold and Audrey can see her breath as she slowly inhales and exhales._

_Mara is pacing, clearly not pleased with the situation._

_Earlier, when lights danced on the wall Sarah all of the sudden leapt forward and disappeared into thin air._

_"Where'd she go?"_

_The faint apparition she knows is Lydia, or maybe Diana as they're pretty much identical, spreads her skirts on the floor and looks at her like she's an insolent child._

_"She took a chance."_

_"There can only be one present at the same time, so she blindsided Mara by jumping."_

_"And Mara...?"_

_"Somewhere around. Probably not to pleased with herself. Ourselves."_

_Lucy Ripley smirks at her own joke._

_"Nothing for you to worry about yet."_

* * *

They're still staring at this new apparition when the cellar doors open and Vince comes bounding down the steps.

_"Where is she?"_

He stops cold when he sees her.

_"You're not..."_

Sarah carefully approaches the bars and gazes at him.

_"Yes, I am."_

In the back of the room, Jennifer sucks in a breath.

Nathan turns to stare at her. That sound. Somehow familiar.

_"Hi, Vince."_

He turns around and glares at Dwight and his friend.

_"How could you keep her locked up like that? She's not an animal, surely?"_

No one dares to answer him truthfully.

* * *

Sarah Vernon is cold.

Cold and sticky and gross.

And hungry.

Her hand automatically feels around for her child, even though he hasn't been in there in a long time.

But Nathan is here.

And Vince. An older, angry Vince.

She never thought she'd ever share the same space with them ever again.

* * *

Outside, the sun is setting and everyone is still pondering whether or not to risk opening the cage.

Nathan has offered to keep watch while the others go out to eat.

He still can't believe she's really here.

There's a man with a gun waiting by the cellar door so he knows not to try anything.

_"Nathan?"_

She's huddled in the corner, softly rocking herself.

_"Yes?"_

_"Food, please?"_

He offers her a Baby Ruth and a bottle of water, and watches as she scarfs them both down.

Later they sit with their backs to each other, the metal of the cage dividing them.

_"He looked so much like you. Our son."_

She breathes in as she calls back the memories of that day.

The pain, the little angry cries, how she counted all his fingers and all his toes.

How she held him all night because she couldn't stop looking at him.

_"Forgive me?"_

Nathan looks over his shoulder and asks her why.

_"For giving him up?"_

He shakes his head and touches her messy red curls.

_"You weren't at fault. If you knew the man he'd become, you'd be so proud."_

Before they can continue, they're interrupted by footsteps and voices.

* * *

_The temperature in the white room is changing._

_She knows because Diana or Lydia is waving her fan furiously._

_"Is James here?"_

_Lucy Ripley looks down at her, not really sure what to answer._

_"Sometimes. He comes and goes."_

_"Sarah thinks he's lost, that he's someone one of us used to know but whose name is forgotten"_

_"So she doesn't know...?"_

_"No, not yet."_

* * *

Jennifer takes over the watch from Nathan as they force him to eat a decent meal upstairs.

He looks over his shoulder at the pale imprisoned woman.

When they're alone she eyes Jennifer curiously.

_"A strange sensation, no, this life inside of you?"_

Jennifer automatically reaches for her stomach and the stun gun on the table.

_"The first three months are the toughest because your body is settling. Three to six are strange because you can tell it's really there. Six to nine are a nightmare if you're pregnant in hot weather."_

She laughs, a sweet bubbling laugh.

That suddenly stops when she appears to be listening for something.

_"Whatever you do, don't let her near your son."_

She holds out her blistered hand and asks Jennifer to pop it for her.

When the needle breaks the black mark a strange fluid comes pouring out.

_"Bottle it, keep it out of her sight. If she tries anything, ingest it whichever way you can."_

Sarah freezes, and Jennifer backs away as she can see Mara slip back in.

Her eyes are all black, her head bobbing in a strange way.

_"Baby. Baby mine."_

It's an eerie sing songy tone that makes Jennifer shudder with fear.

She stumbles backwards and falls hard on the concrete floor and her cast.

_"The world don't need another Crocker boy, too many already."_

She flees upstairs to warn the others but the door at the top is jammed shut.

While she rattles the lock, there's a strange cramping deep down.

_"Jacob Nathaniel Crocker, but you'll call him John."_

_"No, you can't have him."_

The voice is not her own, it's strong and resounds throughout the small enclosed space."

_"Oh, yes, I will, Jenniebean. Yes, I will._


	10. Sprouting

Just as the cramping reaches a peak, strong hands pull her through the door.

A random Guardsman is pushed in armed only with a handgun.

The pull is so hard she lands on the floor.

Nathan helps her up and she instinctively reaches her for stomach.

She doesn't respond to queries of whether or not she's ok, she rushes past them to the restroom.

* * *

_For her 12th birthday, Abraham throws his daughter a lavish birthday party._

_She wakes up to a new dress and new jewellery and her favourite breakfast._

_If only he didn't invite Mrs. Dooley to the join the festivities._

_Mara really doesn't understand this brutal boorish woman who lugs her long suffering dog with her everywhere, and is only able to speak in low grunts and harsh one sentence replies._

_This occasion is no different._

_She watches as Mrs. Dooley scarfs down finger foods like she hasn't eaten in centuries, or why she allows her poxy dog to taste them._

_Still, it's an enjoyable afternoon. William gives her a scroll bound with a ribbon, and urges her to play it for her guests._

_It's a pretty melody which reverbates nicely if played in the right rythm. _

_Her fingers move over the keys, slow at first and picking up in the middle._

_If only the incessant barking would stop interrupting her._

_"Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet"_

_The melody increases in speed and in volume._

_When she finishes, the only sound is a strange panting noise coming from the back of the room._

_Mrs. Dooley lets out a strange yelp and for the first time Mara learns that the mutt actually has a name._

_No one ever really figured out how Mr. Cooke's vocal chords apparently vanished in the middle of a crowded room._

_For the first time in a long time, Mara actually feels a strange satisfaction_

* * *

Jennifer sits on the closed toilet lid, the vial with black powder still heavy in her coat pocket.

The cramping has lessened, but still definitely there.

When she closes her eyes she sees strange images.

A pregnant belly with a black handprint, a hand smearing it all over.

_"If she tries anything, ingest it anyway you can."_

She puts some of the substance on her fingertip and watches it glow in the ridges.

It spreads over her entire palm and dissolves into an oily substance.

It's warm on her lower stomach as she applies it and the cramping is now fully fading.

_"Jacob Nathaniel Crocker, but you'll call him John."_

Jennifer Mason never thought that relief would feel this good.

* * *

_After the party guest have gone, she finds William sitting on the dock watching the sunset._

_She hands him back the scroll but he refuses it._

_"You keep it, for the future."_

_She thinks of Mr. Cooke, and of Mrs. Dooley who left the party inconsolable._

_He tells her of a dream he had a few nights ago. Of them sitting together at a piano with an empty music sheet in front of them._

_Of Mara touching a key and a note appearing._

_More and more as her fingers moved._

_He recalled the notes from memory and spent hours trying to re create them._

_"Keep it safe, Mara, for it's no ordinary chamber music."_

* * *

Jennifer spends a long time in the bathroom.

Long enough for Nathan and Vince to come looking for her.

She lets her hand linger for a moment longer before responding.

Before they can ask what's going on, a shout comes from downstairs.

The guardsman who she was traded for earlier is standing in the middle of the compass symbol, his gun pointed at the cage.

Mara laughs as he fires. The bullet freezes in mid air, as she flexes her fingers.

_"Now, where will I send you?"_

She wiggles her fingers and the bullet turns around and slowly approaches the man's head.

Just before impact, it stops and freezes again.

It lands on the concrete floor with a small chink and rolls into one of the crevices of the symbol.

_"Had you, didn't I?"_

She laughs again, that horrible mocking giggle that makes the temperature in the room fall down to below zero.

Dwight pushes past her, ready to reach for the stungun, or worse.

_"Oh, that again."_

Mara sighs as if she finds this whole captivity thing far beneath her.

The wires hit her chest, and she slumps down on the bench thinking how much fun she could have had if electricity had existed in her own time.

* * *

_Mara guards her role of special music close._

_She keeps it in a locked box on her dresser, and takes it with her when Abraham sends her off to school later that year._

_It lives there throughout every sad homesick night and every hope filled morning._

_Sometimes she'll sneak out to the music room and play it softly while she cries her eyes out._

_She thinks of William and of Haven. And how no one here really appreciates good sunsets or the stillness of the water._

_Over time, her homesickness fades and scars over._

_When she's bored she'll fold paper until it forms shapes. Flowers and animals. Her art teacher praises them, but Mara can not find it in herself to appreciate it. At the end of the day, it's still paper. It's boring._

_So one night she folds a flower out of paper that she painted a deep red. _

_She places it on top of the piano as she plays Williams music and watches as it turns into the most beautiful orchid she's ever seen._

_It's kept between her French dictionary and it becomes her new favourite possession._

_Often she wonders about William, now far away at his own school and if he misses her too._

* * *

Dwight Hendrickson looks at the sleeping woman in the cage and takes a deep breath.

Audrey. Not Audrey. Mara.

He thinks of that woman he used to know. Of that time he watched her race across a baseball field to save a kid from a falling electricity pole.

Of that woman who made Nathan Wournos happy, which in itself is not an easy feat.

The woman who made the Troubles.

When he first joined the Guard, they told him a vague fairytale of a witch and a barn and how important it was for her to leave when her time was up. No one ever told him just how that story came to be. Perhaps that's the thing about public secrets. If they're kept for centuries, the details fade away.

He thinks of his daughter, who inadvertently died because of this woman.

He should be angrier, but he's not.

Because all he can think of is Audrey Parker and all the things she's done for this town.

And how she deserves a place in this world.

* * *

_Mara comes home for Christmas one year to find William sitting on the front step the house waiting for her._

_She flies into his arms, because she's honestly never been happier to see anyone._

_He swings her around and tells her he's got a surprise for her._

_Only it's not the surprise she was hoping for._

_It's a clearing._

_High on top of a cliff overlooking the town._

_In the middle, there's a small branch sticking out in the snow._

_He dances around her all excitedly and points at it._

_"What is this?"_

_"It's going to be our laboratory, Mara."_

_It's too cold to do much of anything, but she smiles at him and in the background, the branch grows a few inches._

* * *

Note: Sorry for the wait. Hope you still enjoyed this chapter.


	11. Interlude (Lucy)

Inside the white room, the figures are still pacing.

Sometimes they become clearer and sometimes she remembers little things.

Audrey Parker sits agains the white wall and regards them.

"Hey, come with me."

She follows Lucy Ripley without question and without anyone seeing.

_They sit on a beach, watching the ocean and two small boys playing near the shoreline._

_Seven year old Nathan and Duke are all legs and knees and boundless energy._

_They're bickering over something they found in the water and their voices resound across the sand._

_"Did Nathan...Does Nathan ever tell you anything about before he came to Haven?"_

_She shakes her head because after Max Hansen died neither of them has breached the subject purposely._

_"So you don't know about the Hansen children?"_

_Audrey hears the words in as if in a vacuum, and she thinks she misheard the word children as plural._

_"About two years ago, a woman came to Haven. She had two children. Thaddeus aged four and Jenny, a baby of a few months. Thaddeus had been badly abused by his father. He could barely walk he was so scrawny and scarred. I saw the pictures. Horrific stuff."_

_Lucy breathes in deeply before continuing._

_"So this woman, Helen, she's told by the Guard that her children are special. So special that they should not grow up together. Helen refused to give up her kids, obviously, until one night in November."_

_Audrey listens intently on the story Lucy tells her of two children vanishing into a snowy night. _

_Of how Thaddeus was found on the side of the road three days later, with no logical explanation on how he got there other then that his father had left him there. In the pocket of his pajama pants, they found a note with a poem._

_Behold these children born of Ruin._

_Time will Separate Them _

_For Their Bond Will Cause The End of _

_All Things._

_No one ever found a trace of Jenny Hansen._

_"Helen...she was never right after that, the Chief says. She loved him, married him but she couldn't cope with the loss. People say that she'd died of a broken heart."_

_Audrey thinks of him. Of her Nathan. Warm, sweet, loving Nathan. Of those small marks down his back. And how big they must have looked on a scrawny boys back._

_The boys come back towards them._

_Seven year old Duke doesn't see or notice her, instead cuddles into Lucy's lap._

_"Look what I found, Lucy."_

_She watches them coo over the crab for little longer, and watches as the other boy stays off to the side._

_"Come here, Nate, you goof."_

_He hesitates but sidles closer as she explains crustaceans to them._

_Later, after she's sent them home she tells Audrey it's time to go back._

In the white room, Audrey collapses against the wall.

Lucy seems fainter now. Perhaps these literal trips down memory lane aren't that good for her.

She feels something warm and coppery under her nose, and looks at the red smear with wonder.

_Lucy Ripley wanders into the storage room at the Herald._

_She knocks the box off the shelf accidentally, making the papers scatter across the floor._

_The faces stare up at her._

_Sarah Vernon, Ruth Kinsey, Lucy Rasmussen._

_She sits cross legged on the floor and sorts them through._

_There's a picture of Sarah Vernon wearing a white sundress, her belly protruding and her red curls caught in the sunlight._

_She feels her own belly, flat and ordinary and breathes deeply. In and Out._

_'Lucy Goosey, I see you."_

The voice is icy and Lucy scrambles back into the white room.

In her cage, Mara wakes and smiles to herself.

Perhaps Jenny Hansen didn't fall of the face of the earth after all.

If she didn't, she'll happily give her a final push.

Note: I've been sorely neglecting Duke in this story, so the next one will feature him in abundance.

Note II : Please let me know what you think, because it's my biggest impetus to keep writing.


	12. Mind's Eye

Disclaimer: not mine

Notes I: So I promised a Duke chapter, and I always make good on those.

Notes II: Lucy's a skank, ya'll. Mara said so.

Duke is a light sleeper, always has been.

But since the lighthouse it's become nothing more then a sheer blanket.

Like something dormant has been awoken and won't go back down.

* * *

_"You don't get out of bed, you hear me?"_

_Six year old Duke is fond of the word no, but never in front of his father._

_So he huddles under the blanket and listens to the familiar nightly noises._

_His father scurrying around, the sound of the door and a woman's voice._

_"No, you're the one not getting it"_

_"What's there to get, Luce?"_

_"This, you, me, the mess we call our lives."_

_"Oh I understand, possibly even better then you ever will."_

_He hears his father pounce, a sound he associates with bad bad things._

_He clasps his hands over his ears and prays for sleep to come._

* * *

He startles awake and he could swear there's someone standing at the foot of the bed.

It fades away before his consciousness is able to register it and leaves him feeling hot and feverish.

He reaches for the other side of the bed and finds it empty again.

Jennifer. Their baby. Their future.

He thinks of Mara and the shell that used to be Audrey Parker.

And that he'll die before she gets her hands on his child.

* * *

At the cabin, Nathan and Jennifer sit on the ratty couch. Strange yet familiar.

She feels like taking his hand in hers just because it's there.

_"Hi, Jenniebean."_

He looks so lost and all she wants is to make things better.

Turn back time to that day when the four of them were happy and at ease.

His head turns towards her and then she notices that he's crying.

She's seen very little men cry in her life, and it always surprises her when they do.

Her arms snake around him and pulls him down towards her.

_"I'm here. Like I'm supposed to be."_

* * *

When she fails to answer her phone after his third attempt, Duke really gets worried.

He considers calling the cops or the Coast Guard when the message comes.

_"Colorado was so much fun, wasn't it? Did you tell her yet?"_

He stares at the display for a moment when the second one arrivés.

_"Audrey might have kept the secret, but I won't. Promise"_

Even in the silence, he can hear that sneering giggle.

_He finds her out on the balcony, staring up at the sky._

_She's so close he feel her body shivering without actually touching her._

_"Come back inside."_

_He snakes his arms around her middle and buries his nose in her hair. She doesn't object, just relaxes into his touch._

_"Sometimes...sometimes I wish I didn't have to choose."_

_She seems conflicted, something he's rarely seen in Audrey Parker._

_"You, Nathan. Why do I have to?"_

_He sighs and ponders giving her a speech about morals and reputations but wisely keeps his mouth shut._

_"If you don't want to, then don't. But I don't think Nathan and I together will make very good bedmates. Or you'd need a bigger bed. And protective gear"_

_Her laughter reverbates through him and he feels strangely relaxed standing here like this._

_"Don't choose...right now."_

_She turns around and gives him a watery smile._

_The first kiss is chaste and unexpected._

_But they don't stop until they're both naked and exhausted and content._

_Right before she falls asleep, they promise to keep the secret whatever happens. _

_But deep down, whatever happens seems kind of hollow._

* * *

Nathan falls asleep with his head in her lap.

She watches the birds and the sky outside and feels oddly content.

She's never thought of him like this, never really noticed the man underneath the anger and the anguish and the devoted love.

_"Jenniebean."_

In her mind's eye she imagines peering up at a boy with those same blue eyes.

_"I'm your big brother, Thaddeus. And and I am going to always be your big brother. Always."_

* * *

Back on the boat, Duke searches his arsenal for the appropriate weapon.

He's looking for a particular kind of crossbow. He's never shot a crossbow, doesn't even know if he has a crossbow but the thought overwhelms him that it doesn't even occur to him.

His father had a crossbow.

He rummages through the boxes of his fathers stuff, when he comes across the Yankees t shirt.

_Duke Crocker sneaks out of bed because he really has to pee._

_His father told him that that was the sole exception to nighttime wandering so that's what he'll say if he's caught._

_The light is still on in the bedroom and through the crack he can hear voices._

_"You're too good to me, you know that."_

_"You know that I'm always good for THIS, right."_

_The woman giggles and laughs._

_He can see her from where he's standing. The woman who works at the newspaper. The one who gave them a tour when his class visited and told them about the printing press._

_Laura, Liz, Lucy?_

_He's pretty sure her name is Lucy._

_Right now she's not very concerned with printing presses, as she's walking around in very little clothing save his fathers Yankee shirt._

_"Shhhhh, he'll hear you."_

_Then he finds that she's looking straight at him._

_"He's six, what's he going to say?"_

_"If he's smart, he's not saying anything."_

_She's still looking at him and makes a small move telling to leave right now._

_Back in the comfort of his bedroom, Duke clutches at his stuffed animal and tries to drown out the noises from across the hall._

_By morning, they've gone, and so has she._

* * *

He finds the crossbow at the back of the storage room.

It's heavy and shining in the dim light.

And all he can think is that it has to be this one to take her out.

She'll die, she'll bleed. But his family will be safe.


End file.
